Willis Jackson With Jack McDuff – Together Again! (1959-1961)

On the five tracks of Together Again!, recorded with three separate lineups in 1959-1960, the Willis Jackson-Jack McDuff-speared combo offers respectable early soul-jazz, if not too different from many other Prestige-overseen sessions of the early ’60s. They show their bop chops to good advantage on "Three Little Words" and "Tu’ Gether"; take a slightly bluesier groove on "Glad ‘a See Ya’"; and slow way down for a make-out mood on the cover of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s "It Might as Well Be Spring." It’s the slow-walkin’-tempoed "This’ll Get to Ya," though, that gives them their greatest chance to stretch out, lasting ten minutes, and adding Buck Clarke on conga to the standard sax-organ-guitar-bass-drums lineup. All of the tracks are included on the 2003 Prestige CD reissue that’s also titled Together Again!, which is a little more complicated than the standard expanded CD reissue; it combines all the tracks from Together Again! and the Jackson-McDuff-helmed sequel, Together Again, Again, though the songs are sequenced in the order in which they were recorded, not the order in which they were presented on the original LPs.

Tracklist:

01. Gil’s Pills02. Angel Eyes03. Three Little Words04. Glad ‘a See Ya’05. Medley: September Song, Easy Living, Deep Purple06. Dancing on the Ceiling07. It Might as Well Be Spring08. This’ll Get to Ya09. Tu’gether10. Jambalaya11. Backtrack [Twistin’ Train]12. Without a Song13. Snake Crawl